NORTH KOREA. A DAY IN THE LIFE (NOORD KOREA. EEN DAG UIT HET LEVEN)

Power cuts, propaganda, indoctrination and group exercise sessions are just a few of the day to day occurrences for Hong Son Wei, a seamstress, living in North Korea. This film has no accompanying narration and needs none. Naturally all filming was subject to the strictest controls of the North Korean regime, any attempt to portray any negative elements would have been censored. Therefore, the picture that emerges of daily life under the 'benign' gaze of the beloved Leader Kim Yong II is the acceptable face of the country that it wishes to present to the outside world. It is precisely this that makes the film all the more fascinating.

Any glimpse into a country as notoriously secretive as this one is rare. But for your average western viewer, the song Son Wei and her daughter sing on the way to nursery - a little tune vilifying the Americans, the way the daughter is told she needs the love of the leader in order to grow just as plants need the sun, and the way nobody knows what the word internet means in her son's English class, are just some of the more absurd and alarming interludes. The culture of self criticism, that causes the brigade leader at the factory to blame herself for not producing her quota of coats, re-enforces the idea of a society that is totally alien and full of contradictions.